One Day My Boyfriend Said He Didn’t Know Me Chapter 09
The news from the photography competition kept circulating for days.
Sophie’s work was pulled, and her eligibility to compete was suspended.
She called me just as I was carrying the last box of books out of the apartment I’d been renting.
“Emma, are you happy now?”
Her voice was hoarse.
I could hear things being thrown on the other end.
I set the box of books by the window.
“Happy about what?”
“You ruined my competition. You ruined my career. Now everyone is tearing me apart online.”
“You brought that on yourself.”
The other end went quiet for a few seconds.
That day in the hospital corridor, when I saw her signaling to Ryan, my heart had already died.
If she’d genuinely fallen for Ryan, I could have accepted him breaking up with me.
But I could not accept her scheming against me behind my back.
She was the one who’d pointed the camera at me.
She was the one who’d pointed the knife at me.
Sophie took a breath.
“Drop the innocent act. You’re just jealous of me, aren’t you?”
“Ryan chose me because I’m more fun, more likable than you.”
“Then hold on to him.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Isn’t that exactly what you used to do?”
The other end went quiet for a moment.
“You think Ryan still wants me?”
She started crying.
“Emma, I never meant for things to turn out like this.”
“I just wanted to win. Once.”
“I just wanted him to prove that he loved me.”
“And then?”
Her voice shot up suddenly.
“Don’t get too smug! He only went looking for you because he can’t stand losing. He won’t wait for you forever.”
“Okay.”
I couldn’t be bothered to listen to any more of this. I hung up.
Someone knocked on the door.
Ryan’s voice came through.
“Emma, I’d like to talk.”
From the looks of it, he wasn’t leaving until we did.
I stepped aside.
He walked in and placed a folder on the table, a key resting on top of it.
“I bought this apartment.”
“It’s already been transferred to your name.”
Afraid I’d refuse, he immediately added, “This is what I owe you.”
I shook my head.
“What you owe me isn’t an apartment.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
He sat across from me, his back rigid.
“You think handing me an apartment, handing me money, pushing everything you can think of across the table—that’s supposed to cancel out that month?”
His hands pressed against his knees, and his face crumbled.
“That’s not what I think.”
“I just want you to stop shutting me out.”
I looked at him.
“You’re overthinking it.”
“I already removed you from my life.”
He looked up, his expression earnest.
“Emma, I still love you.”
That sentence—I’d once waited so long to hear it.
Now all it sounded like was mockery.
“Ryan, I loved you too.”
He leaned forward slightly.
“Then we can—”
“But not anymore.”
He went rigid.
I pushed the key back toward him.
“Keep the apartment. Or sell it. Either way, it has nothing to do with me.”
“You won’t even give me a chance?”
I didn’t answer.
I just looked down at my phone and started searching for other apartments.
This place—I couldn’t stay here.
After a long silence, Ryan stood up.
He picked up the key, then set it back on the table.
“Emma, I can wait.”
Then he left.
A long time later, my phone lit up with a message.
A mutual friend had sent a photo.
In it, Ryan sat on the steps outside the city art center, a ring pinched between his fingers.
Below it was a single line:
“He’s still waiting for you.”
I smiled, then deleted and blocked that mutual friend too.
One clean sequence of taps. Done.